Social Networking Policy

[Your nonprofit name] (“your nonprofit name”) understands that some employees participate in social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn) and chat rooms, and create and maintain personal websites, including blogs. XYZ Nonprofit respects employees’ online social networking and personal Internet use. However, your online presence can affect XYZ Nonprofit as your words, images, posts, and comments can reflect or be attributed to XYZ Nonprofit. As a Team Member, you should be mindful to use electronic media, even on your own personal time, responsibly and respectfully to others. Because employees’ online comments and postings can impact XYZ Nonprofit and/or the way employees are spending their time at work, XYZ Nonprofit has adopted the following guidelines that employees must observe when participating in social networking sites and/or engaging in other forms of Internet use on and off duty. It shall be considered a breach of acceptable Team Member conduct to post on any public or private website or other forum, including but not limited to discussion lists, newsgroups, listservs, blogs, information sharing sites, social media sites, social or business networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or MySpace, chat rooms, telephone based group communications such as Twitter, or any other electronic or print communication format, any of the following:

(1) Anything that may harm the goodwill or reputation of XYZ Nonprofit or any disparaging information about XYZ Nonprofit.

(2) Any disparaging, discriminatory or harassing information concerning any customer, employee, vendor or other person associated with XYZ Nonprofit. XYZ nonprofit’s policies prohibiting harassment apply online as well as offline.

(4) Any private information relating a customer, employee or vendor of XYZ Nonprofit.

In compliance with applicable regulations of the Federal Trade Commission, employees endorsing XYZ nonprofit’s products or services must disclose their employment relationship with XYZ nonprofit and must ensure that endorsements do not contain representations that are deceptive or cannot be substantiated. If you are speaking about job-related content or about XYZ Nonprofit you must either clearly identify yourself as a XYZ Nonprofit employee, or speak in the first person and use a disclaimer to make it clear that the views expressed belong solely to you. In addition, the following statement must be used, “The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of XYZ Nonprofit.”

This Policy applies regardless of where or when employees post or communicate information online. It applies to posting and online activity at work, home or other location and while on duty and off duty. XYZ Nonprofit reserves the right to monitor and access any information or data that is created or stored using XYZ Nonprofit’s technology, equipment or electronic systems, including without limitation, e-mails, internet usage, hard drives and other stored, transmitted or received information. Employees should have no expectation of privacy in any information or data (i) placed on any XYZ Nonprofit computer or computer-related system or (ii) viewed, created, sent, received or stored on any XYZ Nonprofit computer or computer-related system, including, without limitation, electronic communications or internet usage.

Employees who violate XYZ Nonprofit ‘s Social Networking Policy will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.